Aegean Airlines reports growth in passenger traffic in Q1

Greece’s largest carrier Aegean Airlines said on Wednesday passenger traffic grew 5 percent in the first quarter, with load factors improving to historically high levels for the winter season.

The company, a member of the Star Alliance airline group, said it flew a total of 2.1 million passengers on domestic and foreign routes, together with its subsidiary Olympic Air.

Its overall load factor – a measure of how full its planes are – improved by eight percentage points to 76.8 percent compared to last year’s first quarter.

Aegean, which flies a young fleet of 61 aircraft, mostly Airbus A320 jets, said passenger numbers on flights abroad grew 17 percent to 1.1 million but fell 6 percent on domestic routes due to weaker demand.

“The course of load factors and pre-bookings for the summer season … are very encouraging for how the full year will turn out,” Chief Executive Dimitris Gerogiannis said in a statement.